Apple pays $193M tax in Australia

An investigation in Australia revealed the billions of dollars Apple has shifted in profits in an effort to minimize the company's tax.

According to ABC, The Australian Financial Review's analysis revealed that Apple has only paid $193 million in taxes to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) since 2002, despite selling $27 billion worth of products to Australians.

According to Sydney Morning Herald, last year the company reported pretax earnings in the country as $88.5 million, but that was after it sent around $2 billion of income from the sales it made in Australia to Ireland via Singapore.

According to The Australian, Antony Ting, a senior lecturer of taxation law at the University of Sydney, said that the figures introduced reshaped the debate on taxes.

Ting said that lots of newspapers have ran stories about tax avoidance by companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google, but there were hardly any numbers. He went on to say that this is the first time there are numbers for the profits that were not taxed.

The latest news comes as world governments are stepping up their efforts to recoup taxes from tech heavyweights such as Apple and Google.